3. FBackup

FBackup is absolutely free and can be used for personal and commercial files. It backs up automatically to your USB or Firewire device in either local or network location. You may opt to compress the file in zip format or copy it as is.

I am a most happy Syncback user but it cannot do shadow copy, leaving me to have to set my alarm to remember to close Outlook, otherwise I do not get my PST file sync’ed. One simply has to have a programme that can do shadow copy backup.

Windows 8 File History is yet another useless bit of bugware that is not user friendly and it is too buggy. If it works, all is well, but it is obstinate at accepting external devices.

I like Areca because it keeps multiple versions of files and supports more complex backup schemes then the more simplistic methods of just backing up all the files. This backs up only the files that have changes since the last time that file was backed up but it allows you to do a one step restore of all the file at any point in time for which backups are being maintained. No need to restore the last full then all subsequent incremental backups.

With the latest release of Comono 4.0.7.14 there is a bug with differental and incremental backups. I have contact there support and they say it should be fixed with in the next release but they yet don’t have a date for this release.

Anu is right. I have one that works and the download link is given below. I believe GFI discontinued this product, and I can’t locate it on their website anymore. Please note that according to GFI, you can use this freeware application only for personal use.

the backup on my Dell Inspiron has stopped working, the computer is bogged down and I want to do a backup on a new Toshiba ext h.d. that has no driver. My old Inspiron (2007?) is Windows Vista.
Any suggestions for a simple one time backup on a computer that down’t have much storage space? Thanks

I just downloaded GFI and the download was super fats at around 1.3MBPS, which is quite good on a 3.5G USB dongle where I live. The download was 54MB but then the trouble started: installation cannot proceed as it requires LOGIN credentials. It now is a CLOUD service, it seems, which I cannot use.

I am still looking for a reliable thinware free solution that can do shadow copy by scheduled backups.

Some of the programs which support encryption have a flaw: they do not encrypt or change file names. If I want to store something on a cloud (mounted as a local drive using Netdrive or Expandrive) I want to encrypt file and folder names to be protected against the cloud provider shutting down my account for some ambiguous file, as we have seen happen on Microsoft’s OneDrive.